14th August 2016

House sale blues!  The French property market in this region is impossible - no buyers anywhere!  I know what you're thinking.  It's no good saying 'houses aren't selling in our price range'. Just lower the price.  But, what to do if you've already lowered the price drastically and still nothing?  So, we currently have no less than 5 local agents, English sites plus a private ad on Leboncoin (a sort of French ebay: https://www.leboncoin.fr/ventes_immobilieres/1004554664.htm) but with them unless your price is 100K euros or less, there's not much interest. French estate agents aren't worth the huge commission they get:  c.6% of the asking price - way more than the English ones receive! Him indoors says the word immobilier is onomatopoeic : immobile! It's certainly helpful when they vet prospective buyers and come to the notaire (solicitor) with both buyer and seller, but my cynical mind says that's to ensure we actually all sign on the dotted line!  But at least sellers in France don't pay anything to either the agent or the notaire. Meantime I'm busy keeping chez-nous up to scratch: tidy, clean and 'well-staged' with flowers, table-setting etc......just in case.

18th September 2011

Selling a house in France? Sounds easy, doesn't it? Go to your nearest estate agency, sign up, then sit back and wait for the cheque.  Well, no.  It's a veritable minefield.
Last February we signed with one agency. We waited and waited and waited. Nothing. I asked for some feedback and was told 'we have too many houses to do that'.  French agencies in our price range take a minimum of 9000 euros (compared to only 1.5% in the UK); one wanted 15000 euros. (Him indoors says he now knows why they call themselves immobilier: they're all immobile!). By May we signed with 3 more French agencies and waited. After lowering the price, I took matters into my own hands and placed an ad in LeBoncoin.fr. A bit like ebay. Immediately I received enquiries. Difficult though. If you have a fosse septique, a new law requires sellers to provide a certificate of conformity to the law (67 euros), and if you have a gas citerne and the new buyer doesn't want it, the seller has to pay the gas co. 300 euros to take it away, and everyone must provide an energy report costing 400 euros. And notaires deduct automatically any capital gains tax for the treasury. Still want to sell your house? Him indoors says: if you make a capital loss, do they pay you??

27th March 2011

The pitfalls of selling your house - I suppose the same wherever you live, but in France the agony is much prolonged because there are no buyers!  First, I made a herculean effort to spruce up the place for the 'glossy' estate agent photos.. (I pictured in my mind the continuous annoyance of seeing washing-up permanently in the sink)...not realising that I would need to keep up this impossible perfection for ever in case that elusive buyer walks up the drive.  Every day I seem to notice something that makes me panic, ordering Him indoors to quickly fetch that brush to put a fresh coat of paint over everything bar the dogs; (he says he'll gloss over that, and anyway they already have distemper!).  I've tried to think of everything, should that longed-for phone call announce an imminent arrival.  Action-stations will include fresh coffee on the perk and dogs out of the way in the car. But, above all, I've got to realise that the French do things differently.  Let the agent do the showing around.  Make yourself scarce; hide in the garage if necessary. But first I need to find a buyer.  Take a look if you're curious. It's on http://www.agencedisc.fr/  (ref. 0211 8208). For a holiday home with pool in the sunny S.W. of France, it's a snip - no reasonable offers refused!

16th January 2011

Estate agents and solicitors. An inscrutable bunch. You never know where you stand with them. And their charges! But, whatever you do, don't tell the English lot what the French charge, or there'll be a riot.
Typical English charges: solicitor's fee for selling your house - 700 pounds plus VAT (now 20% - can you believe it?); estate agent's fee - 1.5% of asking price.
Typical French charges: notaire (solicitor's) fee to the buyer only: 18,000 euros. Yes, you heard it. 18,000! Apparently, most of this goes to M. Sarkozy, not to the notaire. Estate agent's fee to the seller only - 6% of asking price. So, for a house selling for 200,000 euros, the agent picks up 12,000 euros.
So, all in all, the French win hands down. Mind you, the French agents in particular work hard for their money. Not only do they accompany all viewings, they arrange notaire appointments, attend all signing appointments at the notaire's office, acting as translator where necessary, and meet all parties back at the new house after the signing.
Him Indoors says he remembers that old solicitor's firm in the UK called Sue, Grabbit and Run. Enough said!